


Nightclub Mix-Up

by silence_since_silence



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Banter, Bathroom Sex, Beating, Bottom Merlin, Canon-Typical Uther-Merlin Relationship Dynamic, Court Sorcerer Merlin, Desperate Sex, Established Relationship, Feelings, Fisting, Hurt, Hurt Merlin, Injury, Kidnapping, Left for Dead, M/M, Magic, Mildly Dubious Consent, Modern Royalty, Power Dynamics, Public Sex, Royalty, Secret Magic, Secret Relationship, Sharing Clothes, Spies & Secret Agents, Top Arthur, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-04 03:50:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5319353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silence_since_silence/pseuds/silence_since_silence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Merlin Emrys protects the crown, but who protects Merlin?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mission: Get Arthur Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merlin Holidays Community](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Merlin+Holidays+Community).



> What a ride! Thanks forever and ever to the mods for this happy result. Thanks to the original prompter for causing so many great stories to explode in my head back when assignments were announced. Thanks to B for the extremely fast read-through.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A threat to the prince has been issued, but his personal security team is at a loss as to how to ensure that the danger won't come to pass. Merlin is sent in to gather information from inside if possible, and his presence in the theater of the threat comes just in time to save his prince.

The call comes into the security office only about an hour into the night shift. Merlin immediately goes to the locker room to get the appropriate size of dark jeans – Arthur’s waist size, which means Merlin will need a good belt to hold them in place, – a v-neck shirt, and a navy blue pea coat that fits him just a little too loosely. Merlin looks in the wall-mounted mirror to push some gel through his hair in an appealing way. He doesn’t look noticeably overwhelmed in these clothes that are too big for him, so he deems himself ready for the mission and goes back into the office.

Leon tosses him a small bag as soon as Merlin shuts the door. “Your preferred mission gear is in there. I even included a little glitter. I know how you like that.”

Merlin’s laugh is short and bright. “Hah! Remind me to find out your weakness one of these days, boss. I’d love to be able to poke fun at you on a regular basis for something that was _clearly_ not your fault.”

“You make it too easy, Emrys,” Leon says with a smile.

Merlin checks through the contents of the bag, zips it back up, throws a “ta!” in Leon’s direction, and walks out the door.

Merlin is in the back seat of an inconspicuous four-door and on his way to the location within ten minutes of the call.

oOo

As official Court Sorcerer in a country that doesn’t recognize the existence of magic except within the highest levels of security clearance, Merlin is very high up the figurative ladder with nowhere else to go. His natural abilities had gotten him recruited to the secret service, and the skill set he quickly developed thereafter got him to the position he holds today. Even though the position of Court Sorcerer is technically a higher rank than any rank held by anyone else Merlin works with directly, the nature of his skill set means that he is seen more as a specialist than as a regular member of the team. He is lucky enough to have a team that treats him with the respect his position ought to inspire in everyone, but he knows that his achievements will never be recognized in the same way that theirs can be.

In the back seat of his transport, behind tinted windows, Merlin uses that natural talent of his to cast a spell that will change what he looks like for everyone except Arthur and the members of Arthur’s security team that will be at the location.

oOo

The car pulls up to the private entrance of the night club, and Merlin quickly makes his way in. He has been informed of Arthur’s presence in one of the booths halfway between the bar and the DJ booth on the North wall. He quickly joins the people dancing so that he can make his way through the sweaty mass of beautiful club-goers and across the floor toward Arthur’s table without being too obvious. When he reaches the far side of the room, Merlin makes his presence known.

 _Look to your right, you prat_ , Merlin thinks at Arthur. _I’m in your eye line near that girl with the pink feather boa_. After giving Arthur a few seconds to spot him, Merlin turns to look at Arthur with heat in his gaze. He sees Arthur say something to his friends at the table that is likely along the lines of “I’ve just seen something I like, don’t wait up,” and then Merlin looks away.

A moment later, Arthur’s hands find a place on Merlin’s waist from behind. They dance like that until Arthur stops holding his hands still and starts to feel his way up Merlin’s chest. When the first hand to get high enough brushes over a nipple, Merlin turns around in Arthur’s arms. Within seconds, they are enthusiastically making out on the dance floor. Arthur’s wandering hands move over Merlin’s back. When Arthur’s hands ( _finally_ , Merlin thinks to himself) make their way down to cup Merlin’s ass, Merlin draws himself out of the kiss and starts to drag Arthur toward the toilets. They make their way there with Arthur’s hands still all over Merlin’s body.

When they are safely locked in a stall, Merlin starts to strip off his shirt. They will switch clothes to make everything more believable.

Arthur begins to strip, too, but he starts with his trousers. It soon becomes clear why when Merlin, with the shirt halfway off his head and his arms still inside, is unceremoniously spun around and shoved against the wall by very familiar hands. Arthur pushes his whole body up against Merlin’s from behind, and Merlin gets the shirt off his head at the same time as he feels Arthur reach around front to undo the belt holding up Merlin’s loose jeans.

“Sir, there isn’t time for this. We have to get you to a safe location,” Merlin protests in a murmur.

“Merlin,” Arthur whispers in Merlin’s left ear, “if you wanted this transfer to be quick, you shouldn’t have come in disguise. You know what that trick does to me.” Merlin’s jeans aren’t even unzipped before they and his pants are at his knees.

“It was necessary for the missio—unh.” Merlin’s sentence stutters to a halt as he feels two of Arthur’s fingers enter him from behind. He is so startled at the abruptness of the move that it takes him several seconds to gather his wits again. He is panting when next he is able to gather a coherent thought.

Arthur’s fingers are slick now, which was likely Merlin’s own doing as his magic reacted to ease the way for Arthur without his conscious thought, and there are already three of them in him. It hasn’t even been a minute since they locked the door.

“Sir—” Merlin tries, but he is cut off by a particularly harsh thrust from Arthur’s fingers paired with Arthur’s other hand grasping tightly around the base of Merlin’s cock.

“Don’t call me that while I’m having my way with you, Merlin,” Arthur commands while his mouth is still against Merlin’s ear. He nibbles on the ridge, and Merlin shudders. Arthur adds a fourth finger and keeps thrusting. “Besides, the longer we’re in here, the more believable this will be. You were kissing me so well on the dance floor that nobody watching for my exit would believe we’d indulged ourselves in less than three minutes.” His dulcet tones make Merlin’s mouth water.

The squelch of Arthur’s fingers working in Merlin’s slickness becomes audible alongside the sound of the pounding bass coming through the walls. Arthur must hear it, too, because he says, “Hold on to something.” He barely gives Merlin time to comply before a shoulder is pushing into Merlin’s lower back and an entire fist is making its way into Merlin.

Merlin’s moans are only half a breath apart until he lets loose a little scream when he feels his hole close around Arthur’s wrist. His knees give way, but his hands still hold fast to the top edge of the wall. Merlin hangs there limply, naked from the knees up, with part of Arthur’s muscular arm inside him, and Arthur’s other hand stroking Merlin’s cock around front. Merlin feels the thought drift through his mind that Arthur’s knuckles will probably be bruised later from hitting the wall so much as he jacks Merlin off.

Merlin’s bonelessness doesn’t last, though. He feels himself tensing up all over. “Arth—,” he tries, but can’t catch his breath enough to make a full sentence, let alone a full word.

Arthur understands anyway, though. He keeps the one hand stroking Merlin in front while quickly repositioning himself to take Merlin’s weight from behind in case Merlin's arms fail: Arthur pulls his fist out of Merlin (Merlin grunts), pushes his whole body up against Merlin’s again (Merlin hmms), and thrusts his dick all the way inside the newly vacated orifice.

Merlin cries out and he comes all over Arthur’s hand and the wall he is up against.

Arthur doesn’t stop stroking Merlin’s cock, and Arthur’s thrusts into Merlin are hard, fast, and even.

Merlin has stars dancing in his vision; he is lightheaded, short of breath, and weak-limbed, and Arthur still has his hand around Merlin’s cock and is still thrusting into Merlin at a punishing pace. Merlin wobbles where he stands. He lets his lolling head fall back against Arthur’s shoulder. Arthur clamps his mouth over the muscle in the side of Merlin’s neck and sucks.

Arthur’s thrusts become short and erratic for a few seconds, and then he lets go of Merlin’s neck to moan as he comes inside Merlin.

When they both regain enough sense to move again, Merlin has to pry his aching fingers off of the wall above him while Arthur has to pry his entire body off of Merlin. Arthur had apparently wrapped around Merlin as tightly as an octopus while they were both in their orgasmic haze.

Merlin turns around and wordlessly casts a spell to clean them off. He sways into Arthur and kisses him soundly, then they step back slightly so that they can both get re-dressed. There are many light touches exchanged as they dress in each other’s clothes. When they are done, they look each other up and down. Merlin adjusts Arthur’s coat collar to make it lay flat. Arthur brushes a hand down the side of Merlin’s head to get some of Merlin’s hair to do the same.

 _I love you_ , Merlin thinks at Arthur.

Arthur kisses Merlin on the lips, and then, very softly, utters against them, “Love you. Be careful.”

And they leave the toilets looking like each other.

oOo

Arthur, disguised as the random hookup he had in the club, leaves through the front entrance. He gets into his car with one of the security team as the driver, and they head back to the palace without incident.

oOo

Merlin, disguised as His Royal Highness Prince Arthur of Wales, avoids being seen by Arthur’s friends as he makes his way out of the club through the private entrance. He gets into the car that appears for him, and then everything goes black.


	2. Mission: Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin took the place of his prince and got kidnapped by unidentified and menacing individuals for his efforts. This was all part of the plan, but how much of what follows did Merlin really think he would get into? Now that he's in, how does he get himself out?

“…one of the security team,” a nearby voice says.

“What do we do with him?” another asks.

Merlin gets distracted by the pain in his head for a moment.

“…haven’t responded, so we have no use for him,” a third voice states.

“She may want to…”

Merlin loses consciousness again.

oOo

Merlin is aware of the hum of machinery when next he wakes. It sounds like an engine.

He is lying in a cramped position on his side with his arms bound behind his back and his ankles tied together tightly. When he rolls slightly through no effort of his own at the movement of the ground beneath him, he thinks that ‘engine’ was a pretty good guess. He is being transported somewhere in the boot of a car.

He knows that the spell he was running to keep him and Arthur looking like each other would have dwindled when he lost consciousness. How long has it been since he got into that car behind the club, he wonders.

Before he can put into action a plan for escape from this situation that doesn’t alert his captors, the car stops and the engine is turned off.

Three doors slam shut, and Merlin has his eyes open when the door above him is lifted open.

“Well well, look who’s awake,” says the man with his hand on the door handle. “Get him out of there, boys.”

Two burly men grab Merlin roughly at the shoulders and knees and lift him out of the car only to drop him on the dirt next to the car. Merlin takes in what he can see of his surroundings in the light from the car’s headlights. The road is lined with thick-looking woods. There are no streetlamps or traffic lights.

There are no other cars.

The man who spoke before, who Merlin now recognizes as being the most authoritative of the voices he’d heard the last time he’d been conscious, comes closer and looks down at Merlin with contempt before he speaks.

“I don’t know how your people managed to pull off a disguise like that, but I assure you that your efforts to protect the prince will not deter us. Your people will not get any information from you about us, and we will succeed on our next attempt.”

With that, he turns and walks back toward the driver’s door of the car.

Merlin doesn’t see if the man gets into the car or not, because in the next second he is kicked in the stomach by one of the other men. He cringes and bends in half on instinct, but he can’t shield himself with his hands tied behind his back. He is kicked in the stomach a few more times, and then granted a moment of relief when his tormentor walks away. It is only brief, though because a foot comes at his ribs from behind. He feels something crack and lets out a gasp of pain. The next kick is aimed higher, and Merlin winces so hard that his eyes shut. He thinks that he should get out of this situation before they break his spine. He isn’t looking for the foot that slams down on his bound ankles, so he doesn’t make any move to stop them from being crushed under the full force of the weight of one of the men. Merlin screams out the agony of having many delicate bones broken all at once, and his vision swims. He is turned onto his back – which jostles his already significant injuries and bruises, – and his tormentor sits on Merlin’s chest and starts punching Merlin in the face. After Merlin’s head slams back against the ground for the third or fourth time and Merlin thinks he will soon be suffocated by the man’s weight, the man stands up again to roll Merlin onto his front. He grasps Merlin’s bound hands and breaks a few fingers on each one, one by one. Merlin screams into the dirt beneath his swollen face. While he thinks he might be crying and drooling, he knows for certain that he is bleeding. The man lets go of Merlin’s hands and stands. He and his burly associate both land a few more blows with their feet to each of Merlin’s sides, and then they stop and walked toward the car.

Merlin thinks he is going to get lucky to be left in plain view of the road, even if he isn’t in any condition to make use of it, except the men come back with a coil of rope.

Merlin is lifted by his armpits, which sets off the pain in his torso and ankles anew, and dragged a little ways into the woods off the side of the road. He is held up against a strong tree by one man while the other starts wrapping the rope around the tree and Merlin. When the rope is pulled too tight to allow Merlin to take a full breath and knotted off around the far side of the tree, the man holding Merlin up lets go. Merlin’s feet slam into the ground as his body reacts to being dropped, and he sobs at the pain that flares up in his ankles because of it.

The two burly men laugh. They watch him struggle against the ropes and his own inability to stand for about half a minute, then turn and walk away toward the road. Merlin droops within the bonds of the ropes wrapped around him. His head is pounding. His body feels thrashed.

He hears the car start up and peel out onto the road and into the night. He has been left for dead in what appears to be the middle of nowhere with no way to get out of the situation.

With a spell, he cuts the rope binding him to the tree. He tries to fall forward to land on something other than his face. He lands with a dull thud that brings out the pain in his cracked rib and bruised torso. He cuts the bindings around his wrists. His fingers he will have to hold away from him to keep them from jostling against his body. He notices that the temperature is helping numb some of the pain, but it won’t be ideal for very much longer.

With a massive amount of effort, he pushes his senses out from his body to search along the land around him for something familiar that will point him to Arthur.

He stretches his senses until he realizes that he is only on the northern outskirts of London. Once he figures out his approximate location, he directs his senses toward where the palace should be.

He finds it. He finds Arthur safe in his room and asleep, none the wiser about what is going on with Merlin. Good: that’s several hours’ worth of worry that Arthur avoided.

Now for the _even more difficult_ part.

The ability that allows Merlin to talk to Arthur in his mind is based on proximity; Merlin has never been able to make it work when he didn’t have a direct line of sight to the person he wanted to talk to. He hopes it will work now.

 _Arthur?_ he tries. _Arthur, wake up!_

Merlin senses confusion, then consciousness, then understanding from Arthur. He also senses curiosity. Arthur would probably be making some adorable confused-but-pleased face if Merlin could see him.

Merlin doesn’t want to overwhelm Arthur, so he says, _Brace yourself_ , through their connection before he sends the impression of his agonizing pain and cold through the connection.

He feels Arthur’s shock and worry through the connection. He sends Arthur the impression of ‘north’ and ‘woods.’ He sends Arthur the impression of ‘deserted road.’ Then he says, _Epping Forest, A104, Pond. Leon._

Arthur’s sense of urgency that Merlin feels through their connection matches Merlin’s own, and Merlin feels confident enough that help is on the way to let the connection fade out.

He is still conscious when all of his senses are back inside his body. It’s more than he hoped for, and it bolsters his spirits. With that small optimism and the adrenaline he still has left in him, he brings his elbows to the ground beneath him and starts to drag his body toward the road. He only makes it part of the way when the pain becomes too great and he passes out.

oOo

“Leon!” Arthur bursts into the security office at Buckingham at four in the morning. He is wearing pajamas under a partially thrown-on robe, and his eyes are panicked.

“Arthur, what is it?” Leon’s urgent yet professionally collected tone does nothing to settle Arthur’s elevated heart rate.

“Merlin!” Arthur replies. “Merlin: he’s in trouble!” Arthur speaks very fast, and Leon has a team on the way out toward Epping Forest just north of Loughton as soon as Arthur is finished.

 _Hang on, Merlin_ , Arthur thinks to himself. _They’re coming for you._

Arthur gasps when he feels an unexpected answering wave of relief that definitely isn’t his own wash through him.


	3. Mission: Rest and Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin has been rescued from his ordeal in the woods. He spends rather a lot of time losing and regaining consciousness and seems to meet a different person every time he wakes up. On his road to recovery, he does not meet with the one person he has been missing the most.

The next thing Merlin is aware of is bright lights all around him. He is lying on something soft. Everything smells like it has been sterilized, which is very different from the smell of the dirt and plants of the woods he was in recently.

He opens his eyes more slowly to allow them to adjust to the light in the room. He is alone. He is sure he looks like hell, so he’s kind of glad there’s nobody there.

After a few minutes of first taking stock of whatever he can see without causing his head any dizziness and then just lying in the bed with nothing to do but think, Merlin goes back to sleep.

oOo

This time when he wakes up, there is a nurse in the room. She is writing on a clipboard on the counter, and her back is to him. He makes a noise in his throat to get her attention.

“Ah! Awake, I see. Welcome back, Mr. Emrys. Would you like some water? Since your vocal cords seem to be undamaged, grunt once for yes or twice for no.”

Merlin grunts once while he wonders if he should make an attempt to speak.

The nurse gets a cup of water with a straw and brings it up to Merlin’s mouth so that he can drink.

When he’s done, she calls in a doctor who asks Merlin the questions that will help determine if he has any memory damage they should know about. The doctor clears him of that, then talks to Merlin about his injuries, about what has already been done to help them heal, and about what more is required. He asks if Merlin has any questions, and leaves when their conversation comes to its end.

Merlin is alone in the room again, and the end of his stay seems to be a long way away.

oOo

Merlin’s time recovering in hospital goes by like that, mostly. He has some visitors. The most notable is Leon, who shows up on Monday with an mp3 player and puffy headphones.

“Thought you might be wanting something that doesn’t require much handling,” he says, and puts it on Merlin’s bedside table. Merlin is immensely grateful; the past day and a half has been extremely boring.

Merlin knows it is important for Arthur’s and the rest of the royal family’s future safety  that he fill in all the important information he gathered while he was with the people who took him, so he and Leon take half an hour to discuss what information Merlin now knows.

After that, Leon brings up Merlin’s future work schedule. “Take some vacation time to recuperate,” he suggests. “You could use some time off, anyway, Merlin. When was the last time you took a vacation?”

Merlin’s answer is only vague because his pain medication kicks in right then and he falls straight asleep; they both know perfectly well that it has been years since Merlin took time off.

oOo

Arthur does not stop in to see Merlin at all, but he does send a card. Merlin knows Arthur can’t be anywhere near Merlin right now for a long list of reasons, but he still wishes he could see Arthur safe.

Merlin also wants to hold Arthur’s hand, just for a little while.

oOo

When Merlin is well enough to be released into outpatient care, he hires an in-home nurse to help him along. It isn’t easy to get around without being able to walk or use his hands, and everybody he knows who would be willing to help him out for a few weeks works full time.

The in-home nurse is a huge relief, to be honest. The man is not much for conversation unless you count jokes about medical equipment, but he is organized, punctual, prompt, and almost psychic in the way that he provides what Merlin needs as soon as Merlin knows he wants to ask for it.

With this household help, a physical therapist, and, Merlin suspects, some help from his magic, all of Merlin's injuries are proclaimed to be healed in eight weeks flat.


	4. Mission: Live and Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur haven’t seen or spoken to one another for months, and they have some catching up to do. First, they have to get into the same room at the same time without anybody else knowing.

When Merlin and Arthur finally see each other again, it is on Merlin’s first day back to work after two months of leave and three days of vacation.

Merlin is in a meeting with the king. So far, he has been officially thanked by his highness for both commendable dedication to the safety of the royal family and for bravery in the face of personal harm in the line of duty. Merlin knows that things are getting weird when the king’s wording starts to sound like that of a military medal. It’s not as though Merlin can actually be awarded anything normal; his entire file is classified to the point that most people are not allowed to know that he even exists, let alone what he does.

King Uther sits regally behind his large wooden desk with the ornate feet. His highness’s back is to a wall that has wood paneling covering the lower third and cloth covering the rest. Merlin sits in the chair in front of the desk. The cloth on the wall waves slightly with the air currents in the room. Merlin has been in this room often enough that he no longer takes any interest in wondering just how that wall cloth is mounted. He has had to find other distractions that he can look at without removing his eyes or attention from the king.

Arthur stands level with the front edge of the desk to King Uther’s right. Arthur’s back and shoulders are set straighter than Merlin can ever hope for his own to be, and his feet are perfectly positioned at hip width, not that Merlin is taking notice of this very attractive posture. Arthur is looking straight ahead across the room. His face would appear impassive to anyone not in the know, but Merlin can see in the set of his eyes and the height of his chin that Arthur knows _exactly_ what Merlin is thinking about and is dying from laughter on the inside. It’s as though they’re having a conversation and the king isn’t even in the room.

Except, of course, their conversation is completely nonverbal – it’s hardly even physical, – and the king _is_ in the room. Objectively speaking, the king is the _most important person_ in the room. To Merlin, _Arthur_ is the most important person in the room. To Merlin, King Uther is only important because of his importance to Arthur. However, King Uther’s very existence is what keeps Merlin and Arthur from having anything more than a very well-hidden relationship.

King Uther has all the power. If Merlin were the kind of person who abused power, Merlin would say that he himself is the one with the real power. Merlin could reduce the entire palace to rubble in a matter of minutes if he wished, but he never will. Merlin’s power is for Arthur. Therefore, as long as Arthur is ruled by Uther, Merlin will follow along despite the pain it may cause him. Merlin will be what Arthur needs him to be until they can do as they please.

King Uther finally finishes his speech and, once the lines of dialogue required to end the meeting are exchanged, releases Merlin back to his duties. Merlin walks out neither hastily nor sluggishly.

Merlin heads back to the security office to pick up his regular gear for his upcoming patrol.

There he finds that Arthur has somehow left a note in his locker. It is the first reason to smile that Merlin has had all day.

_My chambers. 8 o’clock. Usual entrance._

The expectation of private time with Arthur that night only makes Merlin’s smile grow.

oOo

Merlin’s shift ends hours before he is meant to meet Arthur, so he leaves the palace and goes home.

A few minutes before eight, he vanishes from his apartment and reappears in a secret passageway within the palace. He takes the passage around several turns and up and down two flights of narrow stairs before he arrives at the trick door to Arthur’s chambers.

It is safer for them if Arthur, as the one of them who is already inside the room, opens the door once he ensures that there is nobody else there and that all of the preparations for their privacy have been seen to.

Arthur opens the door for Merlin half a minute past eight. He pulls Merlin into his arms as soon as Merlin is through the door.

“I have been nearly beside myself with worry, Merlin,” Arthur says as he squeezes Merlin more tightly to him. “You couldn’t have tried to talk at me from a distance again? Not even one time?”

“I did try, Arthur. It didn’t work without the imminent threat of my own death,” Merlin explains. Arthur only holds him tighter. “Not that it was easy finding space away from that in-home nurse, mind you. The man was always there and ready to meet my every need. Useful, but it gave me _no_ privacy.”

Arthur loosens his grip enough to look Merlin in the eye. He raises an eyebrow and says, “Who is this person, exactly?”

Merlin knows that tone. “Oh no, Arthur. He was perfectly good help. You can _not_ throw someone in the Tower just for being present in your boyfriend’s time of need.”

“If I _must_ restrain myself for the good of the people, I shall endeavor to do so,” Arthur jokes.

Merlin tightens their embrace to bring Arthur closer to him. He leans his head against Arthur’s shoulder with his nose against Arthur’s neck. He sighs, but it’s far from content.

“You do know _why_ I spend so much of my time getting in harm’s way for you, don’t you?” Merlin asks.

He doesn’t look up, and Arthur kisses him on the forehead. Merlin shifts so that their lips meet, and soon they are kissing as though they aren’t sure when or if they will see each other again.

They come back from passion to thought only when Arthur takes Merlin’s face in both of his hands and gently, slowly kisses Merlin on his mouth, then his cheekbones, then his eyelids, then the corners of his eyes, the bridge of his nose, and back again on his mouth.

“One day the world will know it, too,” Arthur whispers. Merlin takes one of Arthur’s hands away from his face and holds it against his mouth for a long time. When he completes his sign of devotion to Arthur and seals it with a kiss, Arthur smoothes his free hand down Merlin’s cheek.

“Now,” Arthur says. “Come sit with me. We haven’t talked in ages.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
